


howl

by writedeku



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Naruto needs a hug, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-04 23:53:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11001627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writedeku/pseuds/writedeku
Summary: “You’re so gentle now,” Naruto looks at him with curiosity and suspicion. “Sasuke would never have let me sit on the same bed as him, let alone sleep in it if he could’ve helped it.”“Times change,” Sasuke bites back. “Or would you rather I kick you out now?”Naruto pokes Sasuke in the face. Then he weaves a sign and says, “kai!”Nothing happens.“Usuratonkachi, you’re not in a genjutsu,” Sasuke bats his hands away. “You really find it that hard to believe that I could change?”





	howl

**Author's Note:**

> yoo my last fic for this pairing for a while! gonna be taking a break from ao3 for a while nehehe.

_The orange chaos descends upon room 504 with all the righteous fury of a god wronged._

_“And you call me stupid!” He shouts, by way of greeting. “This is stupid!”_

_“Ehh, be nice,” Sakura whispers. “He’s recovering.”_

_“He’s an idiot,” Naruto rolls up one sleeve. “I’m gonna punch him.”_

_A hand catches onto his fist and stops its movement in its tracks. “I think Sasuke has been punched enough, right?”_

_“No.”_

_“Well, there will be no punching until he’s out of the hospital,” Kakashi smiles behind his mask. “Besides, he’s fine.”_

_“He took on three jonin by himself,” Naruto crosses his arms instead and glares at the boy lying in the bed. “Because he’s a real idiot.”_

_“You’re always the distraction,” Sasuke mutters. “I was the only one who could do it this time.”_

_“And you sucked,” Naruto sticks his tongue out. “Like, you really sucked. I never get this beat when I’m the distraction.”_

_“I get it, okay!”_

_“Obviously not!”_

_The bickering escalates until Sasuke, broken leg and all, starts to climb out of his bed. Kakashi can see Sasuke’s chakra start to swirl around him and hastily intervenes._

_“At least this means you’re worried about your teammates, Naruto,” Kakashi says, and, as predictable as the sun rising in the east, Naruto rises to the bait._

_“I don’t care about him!” Naruto turns around and stomps out of the room._

_“Teamwork!” Kakashi gives them a thumbs up._

_There is a heavy sigh from the boy in the bed._

* * *

These memories come unbidden to Naruto in the dead of the night when his heart feels something that makes him swell and burst into a dozen pieces at once. He sits bolt upright in his bed, heart stuttering, hoping against all hope.

There it is again.

Naruto doesn’t bother with the door, he is out of the window and leaping from roof to roof in an instant, barefoot, still in his pyjamas. He is lucky he is wearing clothes tonight as it starts to get cooler in Konoha, otherwise he’d be running in his boxers, but it does not matter because- because there it is again!

Come to think of it, Naruto hasn’t run this fast in ages, but it all comes back to him an instant and he is swinging from pipe to pipe, sign to sign, until he lands in the middle of a group of ANBU black ops gathering around Kakashi-sensei- no, the Hokage. He has yet to break the habit.

 _You think he’s going to stay?_ Kurama stirs and looks annoyed.

_I will tie him to a tree to make him!_

“Oh good, you’re here,” Kakashi looks at him seriously. “You sensed it?”

“How can I forget?” Naruto snaps.

“You will follow me.”

“He’s-“

“Been pardoned, I know. Still, he arrived here with a bunch of shady characters. He said he’s got a story to tell, so what the hell.”

* * *

Naruto has never been inside the Konoha Interrogation Room before. There is a one-way glass mirror, where Naruto can clearly see- can clearly see-

_Oi, don’t start getting faint now._

_Sorry sorry, but Sasuke’s-_

_Sasuke’s what?_

_Sasuke’s hot as hell!_

_What?!_

Sasuke is wearing more or less the same clothes he wore when he left. He is wearing a heavy black cloak that sits hard on his shoulders, complete with a long fringe on one side of his face to cover his Rinnegan. His face is more solemn than before, if possible, but just as pale, a stark contrast still to the harsh midnight of his hair and eyes, but there’s a maturity and kindness to the lines near his eyes, something that wasn’t there before. While he appears as closed off as ever, Naruto sees in the way that Sasuke sits there is a difference in the air about him, and for some reason, it’s fucking hot. As Naruto presses himself against the glass in shock, awe, and a desire to hide the blood raging south, Sasuke smiles ever so slightly.

“Naruto?”

“Sasuke!” He yells, and nearly breaks the glass in his haste to get into the interrogation room.

_I said get a hold of yourself, dumbass!_

He nearly tears the door off its hinges in response, but then, standing there, he freezes. Sasuke looks at him mildly. Kakashi looks like he wants to slap his face with the clipboard he holds in his hands.

“You’re back!”

“You mean you couldn’t tell?”

“Why?”

“Why not?” Sasuke raises an eyebrow at him. “Happy to see me?”

“Of course!” Naruto gives him a thumbs up. “Just very confused, very lost, and very turned-“

_Just so you know, when you embarrass yourself, you embarrass me._

“Turned?”

“Haha! Nothing! I didn’t say anything! I’m nervous! Why are you here?”

Sasuke gets a look in his eyes Naruto is all too familiar with. It’s the _I’ve only been with Naruto for less than a minute and I’m already tired_ look that Naruto has been on the receiving end of for too long.

“I…I’ve travelled for a while-“

“Two years!”

“-Yes, two years,” Sasuke rolls his eyes. At least that hasn’t changed. “I was passing by, and I wanted to visit.”

“To stay?”

“I don’t know how long.”

Just like Sasuke to keep giving himself a way out of situations. Naruto would make Sasuke stay this time, believe it! Even if it involves tying him to a tree, or- or- marrying him to some girl (his heart pangs), but he would do it so that he could walk down the street next to Sasuke and be complete again.

Kakashi clears his throat and the two of them snap to him.

“Hokage,” Sasuke’s eyes narrow in mirth. “That’s still odd to say. Who’d have thought Kakashi would’ve become Hokage before Naruto?”

“Ehh, I’m kind of glad,” Naruto rubs the back of his head. “I’ve been so tired since I came back from the war. It’s like I used a year’s worth of energy to fight the Tailed Beasts, Obito, then Madara, then Kaguya, and then you- eh, when you put it like that, it does sound like a lot.”

Sasuke closes his eyes.

“Sasuke,” Kakashi says in his best Hokage voice, which is intimidating and authoritative. Sasuke and Naruto’s eyes snap to look at him. “In regards to living arrangements, you will be required to stay with your jonin in charge for at least a year before you are allowed to live by yourself.”

“That’s bull,” Naruto rolls his eyes.

“The Village Elders would not have it any other way,” Kakashi shrugs. “And neither would the village. They know you saved them, but they don’t trust you. Staying with a _jonin_ everyone _respects_ and having that jonin testify on your behalf after a year would appease them.”

“Eh? He’s gonna stay with Konohamaru?” Naruto pictures the two of them living together and his brain shuts down. “Or Bushy Brows?”

“Idiot,” Kakashi smacks him with the clipboard. “He’s going to stay with you.”

There is a heavy silence.

“Ehhhhhhh????!! ME?”

“I’m not letting him stay with me,” Kakashi rolls his eyes. “I’m not letting him stay with Sakura, she’d beat him up, Konohamaru would be killed in two days, we’d never find Lee’s remains, Shikamaru would rather die, need I go on?”

“When you put it like that-“

“Then, it’s settled. Sasuke, you can move in right away.”

“Ah- that’s a bad idea-“ Naruto thinks of the mess that is his apartment.

“I’ll get my stuff,” Sasuke rises.

* * *

“Sorry for the mess,” Naruto apologises the instant Sasuke walks into his apartment.

“I can’t see anything _that_ wrong with it. Honestly, I expected worse,” Sasuke sniffs a little when he firsts steps into the apartment. While small, it has enough facilities to support two people living there. Sure, there are clothes on the floor- a pair of black boxers hang off the windowsill, something Sasuke does everything in his power not to think about, but it’s not a dump.

“Wait, I’ll get it sorted,” Naruto snaps into action, and suddenly there are fifteen shadow clones standing inside the living room. They fly about the rooms while the real Naruto starts to boil some water, and in less than fifteen minutes, _mostly_ everything is picked up. There is a suspicious lump under one of the carpets that Sasuke will not point out. “Tea?”

Sasuke takes the cup because he knows it means more than a simple gesture of boiling tea. He takes a sip- and freezes.

“There’s honey in here,” Sasuke whispers, as if he cannot quite believe it.

“Yeah,” Naruto grins at him. “I remember you liked it with honey. The only sweet thing you would take.”

Sasuke feels his heart shatter. Maybe he should stop underestimating how much Naruto loved.

* * *

“This is your bedroom,” Naruto gestures at the spare room. While smaller than what the main bedroom must be, it was comfortable. There’s a picture of Team 7, the commemorative one with Kakashi and Sakura on the wall, and the desk in the corner is piled high with papers. “Sorry, I used it to study to become a jonin and I got so sick of it I never cleaned it up nahaha.”

Sasuke clamps down hard on the smile that threatens to overwhelm him. “You? Study? Impossible.”

“Shut up! I studied! I am a jonin now, so I outrank you. Hah!” Naruto sticks his tongue out at him and smiles. “I had my clones change the sheets, so don’t worry. Towels are under the sink, and if you need shampoo there’s a corner store...around the corner, haha.”

“Thanks,” Sasuke puts his bag down at a corner. “For going through all this trouble."

“Ah, it’s nothing,” Naruto waves a hand. “I’m glad to have you back.”

_Please stop thinking about having sex with Sasuke on this bed._

_S-sorry, Kurama._

* * *

Sasuke awakes in the middle of the night to sense something- something isn’t quite right. He pulls open the door to his room and steps out into the corridor and sees that Naruto’s door is open.  He walks down the hallway, socked feet making no noise on the wood floor and steps into the living room.

Naruto is sitting in the middle of the floor shirtless. He must be cold, because his skin prickles with every slight breeze from the open window behind the curtains. There is no moonlight but for the sliver on the floor, and Sasuke is thankful for his Sharingan that amplifies his sight enough to see the dull expression on the man’s face.

 “Naruto? What are you doing?” Sasuke asks, crossing over to him.

 Naruto looks up at him, unsurprised. He knew he was there. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Does this happen often?”

Naruto squeezes his eyes shut. “Every time I close my eyes I see the war, Sasuke.”

“I see it too,” Sasuke takes a blanket from the sofa and drapes it over Naruto in an uncharacteristic show of tenderness. “I don’t think we’ll ever stop seeing it.” 

“I see Neji,” Naruto’s hands clench. “He’s always dying. The only one from our class I couldn’t save." 

Sasuke would say he cannot save everyone, but it is the wrong tactic to try with someone as emotionally invested in people as Naruto. Instead he doesn’t say anything. He sits next to Naruto, their arms barely touching, hoping it would be enough. After half an hour of sitting in silence, Sasuke takes Naruto’s arm and makes him stand up. He leads him to his room, and pushes him down onto his bed.

“Go to sleep, Naruto. The war is over,” Sasuke moves to the door. “Let the dead rest.”

* * *

Naruto remembers what happened last night as clear as day, which makes breakfast with Sasuke awkward. There is stiffness in the way Naruto asks him what he wants for breakfast, but there is normality in the way Sasuke replies.

“Last night,” Sasuke says as they casually eat their rice balls, causing Naruto to choke. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Sorry,” Naruto breathes once he’s stopped coughing. “You didn’t come here to play therapist.”

Sasuke’s eyes narrow at him, but he doesn’t say anything. “What are you going to do today?”

“I’m going to help teach at the Academy. I’ve got a class, heh,” Naruto grins cheekily. “You wanna join?”

 “Would they let me?”

 “Pah, they let me do anything,” Naruto waves a hand. “You’re welcome to.”

* * *

“I fucking hate kids,” Sasuke breathes out heavily as the latest class blatantly disrespects him. “I hate them so much, I am going to kill them-”

Naruto wags a finger at him. “You just gave me an idea.”

“What?”

“We’re going to have them try and take our tags,” Naruto hands him a slip of paper.

“Like the bells?”

“No,” Naruto wags the same finger and Sasuke’s eye twitches. “Step 1. They’re going to volunteer the strongest classmate they think they have. Step 2, we’re going to beat them. And then they’re going to be all like _woah awesome! Sensei is really strong_! Step 3, bask in our glory.”

“I can live with that,” Sasuke eyes his tag.

“And then we take them all at once and protect each other, yeah?”

 Sasuke nearly makes a _heh_ sound. “I think I can do that.”

* * *

The class all at once is a little bit much. There are many interesting people, some notable ones Sasuke mentally files away, but Naruto is always at his back, and they always protect each other, just like old times.

 When Naruto’s tag nearly gets snatched by a kid with immense speed, Sasuke is there, one hand clamping down on the child, the tag slipping out of his hands. Sometimes, Sasuke does miss having his other arm, but it’s not that much of an inconvenience. It was when he showered though, but he chose not to have it reattached so that every time he looked in the mirror he would see the empty space and he would remember.

 “Eh, thanks, Sasuke!” Naruto laughs, and then sobers as he uses a shadow clone to tackle a wily one who had a Disguise Jutsu and had crept on Sasuke in his moment of distraction by Naruto’s smile.

When the class had run out of chakra and were lying around the grass in various stages of exhaustion, Naruto says, “did you see how Sasuke-sensei and I always kept to each other’s back?”

 “Yes,” the class choruses.

“That’s the kind of teamwork I want to see from you,” Naruto gives them a thumbs up. “The trust and understanding that your teammate would always protect you.”

The children seem to look at them in a new light. Sasuke is still trying to get over the words _Sasuke-sensei_. It makes him feel all kinds of giddy.

* * *

The first time he was assaulted, it is someone pouring their hot coffee on top of his head as he and Naruto passed a block of apartments. 

There is pain, yes, it flashes- but Sasuke’s gone through so much that he can ignore even this. On the other hand, Naruto’s eyes flash like a storm is brewing. “Excuse me?” He asks, his voice low. The man starts to quake and darts back inside the house.

Naruto leaps after him, but Sasuke's hand lands on Naruto's ankle and yanks him back down to earth with barely a grunt. "He's not worth it."

Sasuke’s eyes widen and he hides this by shakes out his hair. Naruto puts a hand on his shoulder and he feels the burn on his scalp start to heal, though not as fast as it would’ve been with a medic ninja. “I can ask Sakura to take a look at that later.” 

“It’s fine,” Sasuke runs his fingers through his hair. “I’ve been through worse.”

“Have you spoken to Sakura since you came here?” Naruto’s eyebrows are still creased in a sharp line. This way of questioning seems to serve as a distraction then.

 “Yes. She punched me through a training wall and yelled at me for thirty minutes,” Sasuke shrugs his shoulders. “I think I deserved that.”

“Ah, you did,” Naruto grins cheekily at him. “You were a real pain, you know?”

“Like you weren’t.”

“Okay, but I was a pain people loved.”

* * *

The children hide behind Sasuke and quiver, not afraid of him anymore, too busy worrying about the four shinobi that stand before them, faces dripping with blood that’s not their own. 

“Haven’t you heard?” Naruto asks quietly. When Naruto is quiet- that’s when you run, Sasuke has learnt. That’s when you move to a different village and change your name. “The war is over.” 

The four shinobi wear no village tag. They are like the Akatsuki then, borne of out the drive for conflict, endlessly ceasing in the hearts of men.

“Ehh, but I want to fight, Akihito,” one of them tilts his head and smiles, all pointed teeth and no warmth.

“We all do,” Akihito bares his teeth. “What’s a brat like you going to do?”

Naruto is already hurt. Sasuke can see the way he places more weight on his left side, the way he breathes shallowly. Sasuke knows all too well the sounds Naruto makes when he’s hurt because he’s usually been the one doing the hurting. The thought sends shivers of regret through him but he’s wise enough to slam it down.

“I’m going to protect my village,” his chakra swirls around him in pretty shows of red and orange, a fiery display of power. “You aren’t going to get in my way.”

 “He’s Uzumaki Naruto!” One of the children shouts. He is a lot like Naruto when he was younger, foolish, rebellious- he went without a plan at one of the shinobi and has a cut across his left cheek where Sasuke had been just a little too slow. “He was the one who stopped the war!”

The shinobi look at each other. There is not much recognition, and Naruto’s outward demeanour is still cheeky enough to put doubt into his opponent’s heart. There is not much thought, therefore, when they decide to attack anyway in a plan that has clearly been rehearsed.

 Naruto goes tumbling down when one of the _shinobi_ use a jutsu he is not familiar with, and all at once there is a pole through the middle of his chest. Naruto doesn’t breathe- right, he can’t.

Two hands land on the pole and rip it out of his chest in a burst of blood, the wound quickly healing with help from Kyuubi, presumably. Sasuke feels his chest hurt in utter sympathy because suddenly- suddenly Naruto getting hurt in his usual fashion is not something he stands for. It is not something he sneers at and says, “ _usuratonkachi"_ anymore.

He makes as if to start forward, but then Naruto is saying, “Sasuke, get the children out of here."

“But-” 

“I said go!” Naruto snarls, his chakra exploding into the Nine-Tails form, burning the ground where he stood.  

Sasuke picks up two with his only hand and tells the others to run after him. The _shinobi_ do not chase him, they are presumably too occupied with the sudden giant monster they have to fight: the Demon Fox of Konoha, and it’s equally terrifying _jinchuriki_ , Uzumaki Naruto, known to other villages as _Kiseki o Okosu Shōnen_ , the Boy of Miracles. 

Even as Sasuke bolts away with the children, he hears a loud, angry shout he has heard countless times in his life. “You hurt my friends and I will never forgive you! I’ll never give up!”

* * *

Sasuke has always been around- well not always, something he still has a hard time coming to terms with- to see the aftermath of one of Naruto’s foolish battles against far, far stronger opponents. Two days in the hospital, a week of complaining, the next mission, rinse and repeat. But he’s never been around in this way- to actually wait for Naruto to come home after the battle and watch him change his bandages, wince at every step he took, have a hard time straightening his back.

“Are you okay?” Is the first thing Sasuke says when Naruto troops through the door and nearly collapses onto the floor, his orange jacket burnt and stained with various hues of blood. Sasuke catches him neatly in one hand and lets Naruto use him to stand up. “ _Usuratonkachi_ , you shouldn’t have sent me away and then taken the battle somewhere else.”

Naruto waves a hand at him.

 “And you should be at the hospital!” 

“I’ll be fine,” Naruto stands on shaky legs and falls right back over again. Sasuke makes a _tch_ sound in the back of his throat. “Kurama will take care of me.” Naruto winces at something unseen, Kurama must be yelling at him too.

“Keep scolding him, Kurama,” Sasuke grumbles as he helps Naruto into the bedroom and starts tugging on his shirt without even realising the impact of his actions. “Ah, you can’t lift your hands. Then I’ll just-” Sasuke pulls out a kunai from one of his endless pockets and slices through the jacket at the shoulders, causing them to fall right off.

Naruto is banged and bruised all over. Patches of his skin are burnt off, several others are badly grazed and of course, there is a _gaping hole_ in his fucking ribs that is healing but not fast enough. Sasuke can actually feel his mouth drop in awe at what Naruto withstands on a daily basis.

From touching him, Sasuke suddenly gets a whisper in his mind that makes his hair stand on end.  

_If I did not care for him, he would not be living, Uchiha. You understand?_

“Clearly,” Sasuke mutters and ignores Naruto’s confused expression as Sasuke strips him off his tattered pants and helps him change into clean ones. “Take a shower when that- hole in your chest has at least stopped being one I can shove my hands through.” 

Naruto smiles blearily at him. “But-” 

Sasuke decides the fastest way to get Naruto to bed was just to knock him out, which he promptly did.

* * *

Sasuke watches Naruto come to almost a day later with a lot of flailing, shouting and “Sasuke!” 

“What is it?” Sasuke is at his feet immediately, but the panicked look about Naruto seems to have faded. Instead he stands, slowly, with a lot of muttered swear words and many sharp gasps of pain.

Sasuke follows behind him as Naruto slowly makes his way over to the toilet and the shower- ever so slowly, turns on. It runs for half an hour before Sasuke makes the executive decision that this is too long for any decent shower, so he yanks open the door and is about to unload a tirade of angry words on him that spanned from _stop wasting water_ to _why the fuck are you always getting hurt_ , but the words die in his mouth when he sees Naruto is backed up against the shower wall- crying.

“Naruto?” Sasuke whispers, stepping into the bathroom and being a Very Good Friend by not looking down. There is absolutely nothing lustful about the way Sasuke opens the shower door and hops inside, getting soaked in the process. He turns off the showerhead and drapes a new towel over Naruto’s front and says, softly, “oi oi, _usuratonkachi_ , what are you doing?” 

Naruto sniffles and gives him a thumbs up. “It’s nothing. I just-” 

“Naruto,” Sasuke would carry him in a bridal style out of the shower but he’s missing a goddamn hand. He settles for sitting next to him. “I'm going to ask you politely to shut the fuck up.” 

“Okay,” Naruto says, and puts his head between his legs. The hole in his chest seems to have closed off at least.

“You can cry if you want to,” Sasuke offers his shoulder.  

Naruto smiles at him but it wavers before it reaches full capacity and wobbles into a sobbing frown. Sasuke sits there in the damp shower area, his lower half completely soaked and his shoulder stained with Naruto’s tears as he cries and cries onto his shoulder.

* * *

Sasuke seems to get the feeling that Naruto wants to be left alone, so he does, he does, until he comes out at night to see Naruto holding his hitai-ate in his hands. He is sitting at the windowsill shirtless again, and the moonlight lights up his skin in a pale, silvery colour, making his eyes seem almost ethereal.

 Sasuke does not move from where he is in the corner, carefully folding his chakra in on itself so that it hides his presence.

“Neh, Kurama,” Naruto lets one end of the hitai-ate dangle between his fingers. It is the most careless Sasuke has ever seen him been with it. “Why do I do this?”

There is no visible reply. 

“For my friends?” Naruto questions himself. The hitai-ate drops to the ground. “For the village? For the world? Never for me, right?”

Again no reply. Naruto’s face looks- well, he looks almost like he’s dead inside.

“I feel so empty, Kurama,” Naruto’s eyes tear up again and the tears are blinked away in a furious rush. “I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you. Am I strong enough if I didn’t have you to keep protecting people this way?”

Naruto starts to cry now, hunched over his body with the air of a man who’s just given up. “It just hurts so much. It _hurts_ and I want it to stop! Make it stop, Kurama!”

Naruto’s chakra flares up an orange red, and even his small, inconsequential wounds disappear. Naruto is left looking the hitai-ate on the ground, tears still drying on his face. “I don’t feel any better,” he whispers, and looks through the window as though looking for a life he never had.

Sasuke stares in shock at Naruto’s broken form on the window bench and feels his heart- his everywhere, ache and break. So this is what the aftermath of a desperate, I’ll always get back up battle looked like. Emotional trauma, doubt, stress and sad, sad pain. Is this what it was always like? Did Naruto go home to his empty apartment and make his food by himself and sit there on his bed weeping in pain and loneliness?

Sasuke runs towards Naruto before he can stop himself and pulls him into a desperately tight hug, as tight as he could with one arm. “Don’t doubt yourself,” he says, as his fingers start to weave themselves into Naruto’s hair, the soft strands parting before him easily. “You do the best you can. You’ve always done the best you could.

“Sasuke!” Naruto gasps, and then he’s hugging back, his arms around Sasuke’s waist, and he holds onto Sasuke as though if he let him go he’d dissipate like smoke on a windy day. “Sasuke,” Naruto cries. “Sasuke.”

* * *

They speak of last night this time. Sasuke counters all of Naruto’s doubts with well-placed retorts and mentions of past battles and Naruto slowly starts to brighten up until he is almost the same as he was those weeks ago, cheeky, smiling and happy. Sasuke wonders if this is the first time Naruto has ever talked to someone about all his psychological trauma when he wasn’t in the middle of explaining why he’d never give up and vows to always have an ear open for this boy.

This boy had saved him and he would save him in return.

“Can I stay with you tonight?” Naruto asks him one night, his hands shaking. “Please?" 

Sasuke stares at him in shock. “Uh, sure.”

 “I’ll sleep on the floor-” Naruto wrinkle his nose. “Wait, sure?”

 “Just don’t snore,  _usuratonkachi_ ,” Sasuke gives him a look that could be interpreted as playful if he was anyone else. “Or I’ll kick your ass.”

* * *

Naruto sleeps on the left side of the bed, occasionally pressing into Sasuke’s back. It’s not like he minds, he's spent nights with Naruto in tighter places than this but there is something comforting about the dip in the bed on the left side, a sort of reassurance that was not there before. 

Naruto, however, is only closing his eyes and pretending to sleep. Sasuke knows this, just as he knows the sounds Naruto makes when he’s hurt. Maybe Sasuke does know Naruto better than anyone else- both in times of peace and times of hatred.

 “You can stop pretending,” Sasuke drawls and turns over in the bed to face him. Naruto’s sky-blue eyes are watching him intently, proof that he was not even close to sleep. “What’s up?”

 Naruto blinks at him slowly. “What happened to you?”

 Sasuke raises one eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re so gentle now,” Naruto looks at him with curiosity and suspicion. “Sasuke would never have let me sit on the same bed as him, let alone sleep in it if he could’ve helped it.”

“Times change,” Sasuke bites back. “Or would you rather I kick you out now?” 

Naruto pokes Sasuke in the face. Then he weaves a sign and says, “kai!”

Nothing happens.  

“ _Usuratonkachi_ , you’re not in a genjutsu,” Sasuke bats his hands away. “You really find it that hard to believe that I could change?

“Eh, you can change,” Naruto crosses his arms and wriggles closer to Sasuke. “Just not that much. It unnerves me.”

Sasuke notes, with some surprise, that Naruto’s eyes contain new golden flecks in them, particularly around the iris. He wonders if it is also because of Kurama’s influence everytime they go into the Nine-Tails mode. “I met a family in Hidden Waterfall,” Sasuke whispers. He feels like he should be whispering. “They took me in for about a month. Apparently I saved their son in the war,” Sasuke is so close to Naruto he could count his eyelashes. You hardly saw Naruto’s eyelashes, they were so blonde they disappeared in the sun. “I hadn’t had a family in years.”

 “And they taught you what, kindness?”

 “Their father was a monk,” Sasuke rolls over and faces the ceiling. “They taught me a lot of stuff.”

 Naruto studies him quietly. “Why are you back in Konoha?”

“You want the truth?”

“Is it something to be afraid of?”  

Sasuke rolls back over to look at him. He really has changed, hasn’t he? He’s taller, and wider- perhaps a diet that isn’t solely ramen or cup ramen has allowed him to really put on muscle. His jawline is sharper too, his Adam’s apple more prominent. There is scruff growing on his chin too. His eyes are more serious. The blue is darker. Then again, Naruto had always been a bit of a heart-breaker. Apparently, he came back after training with Jiraiya-sensei two heads taller, buffer, and kinder- and yet still had no time for girls who looked his way. “I wanted to,” Sasuke breathes. “That’s all there is.”  

Naruto places one hand on the side of Sasuke’s face, causing his Sharingan to flare up unexpectedly. His hand is warm- Naruto is always warm, the fire from Kyuubi keeping him nice and toasty always. “Thank you,” Naruto lets his hand slide off the other’s face.  

Sasuke smiles like the wind. Softly, then all at once.

* * *

Perhaps it is no surprise that the shinobi Naruto fought a month ago arrive again with reinforcements and a score to settle. This time, Sasuke is determined to not let Naruto go on his own and stands his ground firmly when Naruto tells him to run.

“No,” Sasuke stamps his foot and a susanoo erupts from the ground, encasing him completely. “I’m equal to you, remember?”

 Naruto’s eyes narrow at him. “You’re gonna-”

“Lose another arm?” Sasuke raises one eyebrow and pulls his katana out of its sheath. “Doubt it.” 

Naruto and Sasuke stand back to back, Nine-Tails with _Susanoo_ , and honestly, he’s forgotten how exhilarating it is to fight alongside Naruto once more. They move with a fluidity that is not bound by the confines of this planet- when Sasuke loses his katana, Naruto is there grabbing it, when Naruto is hit and goes flying backwards, Sasuke is always there to catch him.

It makes him feel powerful, overwhelmingly so, to move with Naruto they way they did, head over heel, side by side, and suddenly he realises- he realises what Naruto tried to teach him long ago.  

_I am strong not because I bow to a man who hones power for himself! I am strong because I have many hands holding me up to the sun, and I know they won't let me fall! Sasuke, you fight for yourself, and so you will never know power._

All those wasted years, Sasuke thinks in regret. Fighting, hurting, running away- all because he could not understand that to fight by someone’s side is a trust and a responsibility that far outweighs yourself. When you fight with someone the way the shinobi do, you put your life in their hands and yet you still feel unstoppable because you know they would fight to the death for you.

It is liberating.

 “You finally learnt, didn’t you?” Naruto asks him as he prepares a tailed beast bomb. “What I said. I see it in your eyes, Sasuke. You were never very good at hiding emotions in your Sharingan. You take left, I’ll take right, let’s get them in the middle!”

Sasuke bounds to the right, but as though the enemy knows what he’s doing, he sends a barrage of flame towards him. Sasuke quickly summons a skeletal susanoo - but then- another one of the shinobi throws forward a rope of chakra and suddenly the small barrage of flame isn’t small at all but a tidal wave of pure, unadulterated heat.

 Oh, how it burns. Every part of Sasuke feels like he’s peeling off, flaking off, falling down. He drops from the air and falls, and thinks, hey, it could’ve been worse.

 And then he’s caught.

He falls into a pool of chakra, comforting and cool, and there’s an arm circling around his waist, pulling him upright. Sasuke stares into the golden eyes of Naruto, shaking and scared. There is a pang of silence when they realise what a state Sasuke is in- Naruto pulls back his hand to find it covered in sticky pus and melted flesh.

All sounds from the battlefield have disappeared. It’s just the sound of flowing chakra, ebbing like the tide, and Naruto’s breathing getting faster and faster.

“ _Usuratonkachi_ ,” Sasuke breathes, pleased that this would be his last word, and falls once more.

Naruto grabs him, pulls him flush against his body and _howls._ It is nothing like Sasuke has ever heard before from him, it is the howl of one demented, it is the howl of one possessed, it is the howl of someone about to lose the one thing that mattered the most. It is not human. It is animalistic and primal in its fury.

Sasuke registers that Naruto’s eyes are a blinding red and slit-eyed like a cat’s and he thinks, _oh no, Kurama._

 A bubble of chakra shoots up around him, red hot in intensity, and so powerful his burns almost already starts to heal perfectly. Naruto is still screaming, and as he watches, his Nine-Tails goes from the normal orange to a burning painful red.

The _shinobi_ stop and stare at the raw power of the Nine-Tails and a jinchuriki who could not care less about who died. And then it is their turn to scream as a paw slices down towards them and cuts three in half.

“Naruto,” Sasuke fights to stand up and finds that this leg is burned down to the bone. “Naruto, stop!" 

Naruto cannot hear him. He charges the shinobi, and they scatter before him, running into the trees and screaming, fire clinging to their shirts. Sasuke stares in awe at Naruto broken, at the elongated canines that creep out over his lips, the sharp-red of his slit eyes, the snarl in the back of his throat.

He cleaves downwards again and the very earth splits beneath his feet.

“Naruto,” Sasuke finally manages to stand as Naruto’s chakra swirls around him. Naruto whirls to face him, growling.  

It is pretty hot, Sasuke has a brief moment to think. It is pretty damn hot.

“Stop it,” he staggers over to Naruto, who is still snarling, although now he just sounds confused. “I’m fine, c’mon, you’re going to hurt people. See?” Sasuke places his hands on the side of Naruto’s face and leans forward so that their foreheads touch.

 Red eyes stare into mismatched ones.

“I’m okay. You protected me.”

Naruto growls at him and smashes one of his tails into a cluster of houses- there was _one_ shinobi in there, but he broke four or so houses to get him. “Naruto!” Sasuke slaps him, and there’s a second of stunned silence. “Stop it!” 

“Sasuke?” Naruto whispers, and then the entire chakra demon disappears, and the two of them fall to the ground.

When Sasuke manages to stop his head from spinning, he looks up to see him kneeling in a pile of rubble that he created. He looks up at Sasuke, pained beyond belief.

Sasuke staggers upright and trips over to him until they’re kneeling in front of each other. Sasuke finds a smile winds itself onto his face and doesn’t stop it. “Hey,” Sasuke nudges him gently. “You think you’ve improved your kissing skills since the last time we did it?”

Naruto stares blankly at him. Sasuke shakes his head and yanks the front of his shirt and just like that, they’re kissing. Naruto lacks experience but he makes up for it in enthusiasm and pitches Sasuke backwards so he can climb on top. Sasuke can feel his heart skip a beat when he sees Naruto leaning over him with an entirely new glint to his eyes, and then they’re kissing again.

* * *

“I can’t believe I destroyed the square,” Naruto moans as he rocks back and forth, awaiting his meeting with the Hokage. “Kakashi-sensei is going to kill me! I’m never going to be the Hokage!” 

“You lost it when I got hurt,” Sasuke nudges him. “You need better control over yourself.” 

“You’re alive because of me, bastard!” Naruto shoves him. The receptionist shushes them with an angry frown and Sasuke shrugs.

“I think I repaid that favour already,” Sasuke recalls the events of last night and grins slyly at Naruto, who flushes a furious red.

“Shut up!”

“Well it’s not like you didn’t like it,” Sasuke spreads his hands. “I distinctly remember you saying _you’re so tight, Sasuke_ and _oh, yes, Sasuke_ and _say my name_ and-”

“I said shut up!” Naruto clamps a hand on Sasuke’s mouth, but the man simply smiles at him through his eyes.

“Naruto!” A voice yells down the hallway. “You are in so much trouble!”

Naruto drops Sasuke and shoves himself into the corner of the chair. “Oh no, it’s Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto quakes. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to-”

“You lost control of your chakra,” Kakashi smacks him with a clipboard. “Wasn’t that lesson number one? Have I failed as a teacher? Kyuubi could’ve killed you, you know! And the town! Sasuke! Why weren’t you there to stop him!”

“I did.” Sasuke tilts his head at Kakashi and his hair swings a little bit left, revealing a quick healing bruise just below his jawline.

Kakashi stares at that. Then at Naruto. Then back to Sasuke. You could almost see the gears turning in his head.

“Since when have you two been dating?”

Stunned silence.

“Since never!” Naruto explodes into a fury of words. “Why I would date that bastard is beyond me! He is annoying, he eats all my yakisoba buns, he leaves his kunai on the dining table, he throws knives at my pictures-” 

“Since yesterday, Hokage-sama,” Sasuke crosses his arms.

Naruto could not get any redder...right? Sasuke considers this and leans in to give him a kiss on the cheek. Oh, so he can get redder. Interesting.

“Bastard!” Naruto barks, but when he sees Sasuke’s face, tender for once, he abruptly stops yelling and sinks into a puddle on the chair, covering his face. “Kakas- _Hokage-sama_ , can we just-”

“You can leave,” Kakashi says, waits for Naruto’s eyes to light up, and then shakes his head. “Is what I’d _like_ to say. But you still have to tell me who attacked you.”

“Neh, sensei, you really have to stop leading people on,” Naruto rubs the back of his head sheepishly.

“For once, I agree with Naruto,” Sasuke nods solemnly. Naruto stops dead in the middle of preparing for another rant upon hearing those words, and then grabs him and well, makes out with him in front of everyone in the reception, the Village Elders, and the Hokage.  

Kakashi makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat.  

Well, it can’t be helped. Sasuke grips the front of his shirt and kissed him back. They deserved this, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> if you do like this fic, do check out my others, [Yours Truly, Uchiha Sasuke](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10968009) and [miso and tears](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10976856)
> 
> thanks for reading!


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